Page 12 - Special Topic Session (STS) - Volume 1

STS339 Irene Salemink et al.

Business registers as the backbone of statistics;
Challenges and opportunities regarding business
register and outcome quality
Irene Salemink, Harrie van der Ven, Barry Coenen,
Rico Konen, Johan Lammers
Statistics Netherlands

Abstract
At Statistics Netherlands the Statistical Business Register (SBR) is positioned
as backbone for economic statistics and plays a central role in its production.
Related business economic statistics, including National Accounts, are
designed and organized as a chain of statistical processes. This chain starts
with a coordinated population of statistical units derived from SBR and the
operation is placed under central direction; the so called chain-management.
This approach governs quality management, including procedures to maintain
SBR, coordination of adjustments of statistical estimates due to errors in the
SBR populations and prevention of inconsistencies.
The SBR is the first place to correct errors and to repair them on a coordinated
way in statistics. However, it’s not only the quality of the SBR itself that counts,
also the economic indicators derived from it are of importance for customers.
In order to control the quality of the chain as a whole, the maintenance of the
SBR is tuned with the statistical processes, e.g. by defining different
maintenance groups of statistical units in the SBR or combining data of
different sources (Administrative, NCB).
Major challenges concern a mixed-mode-multisource-approach for compiling
economic statistics and a growing demand to measure the economy
adequate. In this model large and complex enterprises are dealt with in a
custom fit approach, the role of administrative sources is enlarged, the role of
big data is upcoming and more flexibility in the use of the business register is
needed.
The contribution by the business register to the business value of economic
statistics is crucial. Priority in the development of the processes and the
applications depends upon this value.

Keywords
Backbone; Chain-management; Business value

1. Economic Business Statistics; A Chain of Statistical Processes
National Accounts are compiled using various data sources of which a
substantial part originates from the business economics domain. The
compilation of the underlying statistical data is most commonly organized like

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